How to use Do Not Disturb While Driving

With iOS 11 and later, your iPhone can sense when you might be driving and prevent notifications.

With iOS 11 and later, the first time your iPhone senses that you might be driving, it shows a description of the Do Not Disturb While Driving feature after you stop. If it doesn't appear, follow the steps below.

Do Not Disturb While Driving isn't available in all countries or regions.

Turn it on and off in Control Center

You can let Do Not Disturb While Driving turn on automatically, or add it to Control Center for quick access:

Go to Settings > Control Center, then tap Customize Controls.

Tap next to Do Not Disturb While Driving.

On an iPhone X or later, you can swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen and tap to turn the feature on or off. Or on an iPhone 8 or earlier, you can swipe up from the bottom of your screen and tap to turn the feature on or off.

What to expect when Do Not Disturb While Driving is on

Your iPhone stays silent and the screen stays dark. If someone sends you a message, they receive an automatic reply letting them know that you're driving. If the message is important, the sender can type the word "urgent" to make sure that you receive a notification. Then you can pull over to read their important message or ask Siri to read it to you.

iPhone delivers some notifications, such as emergency alerts, timers, and alarms.

Phone calls are delivered using the same conditions as standard Do Not Disturb: You can allow calls only from your Favorites, and you can allow calls to come through if the same person calls twice in a row. If your iPhone connects to your car via Bluetooth, calls will come through as usual, and you can use the buttons, microphones, and speakers in your car to take your call.

If you use Maps to navigate, your iPhone still shows lock-screen navigation help and gives turn-by-turn instructions.

If you're a passenger and you try to use your iPhone while the feature is active, you must tap I'm Not Driving to turn it off.

Customize features for Do Not Disturb While Driving

To customize how Do Not Disturb While Driving works, go to Settings, then tap Do Not Disturb.

Tap Activate to choose how you'd like Do Not Disturb While Driving to turn on.

Automatically: Your iPhone uses information like motion detection and network connections to sense that you might be driving, and turns on the feature.23

When Connected to Car Bluetooth: Do Not Disturb While Driving starts when your phone connects to the hands-free system in your car.3

Manually: Use Control Center to turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving before you start.

Tap Auto-Reply To and choose who receives an auto-reply, then tap Auto-Reply to customize the message they receive. If someone still needs to contact you, they can break through Do Not Disturb by sending "urgent" as an additional message.

Keep Do Not Disturb While Driving enabled on your child's phone

Are you the parent of a young driver? You can prevent changes to Do Not Disturb While Driving to make sure that it remains a part of their safe driving habits.

On your child's iPhone, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Screen Time, then tap Turn on Screen Time.

Tap Continue, then tap This is My Child's iPhone. From here, you can follow the prompts to enable specific restrictions, or tap Not Now until you reach Content & Privacy.

Tap Continue, then create a Parent Passcode.

Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your parent passcode.

Scroll down and tap Do Not Disturb While Driving, then tap Allow.

After you enable this feature on your child's device, they won't be able to turn it off without the parent passcode.